Westcoast M5

It's a great feature. I experienced it on a loaner 7. Here is how it would benefit me in the real world:

1) My kids often don't close the door fully when they get in - a forgivable offense when you only weigh 60 lbs and your arms are only 2 feet long. I wouldn't miss seeing the door ajar light come on as I leave the curb, then having to pull over and get them to reclose.

2) My wife that somehow believes the door won't close unless it is slammed hard enought to rock the whole car.......actually ideally it would prevent slamming kind of like those kitchen drawers that you can't slam but close everytime.

Lancaster

No there isn't. I use the recess inside the bootlid which is there for that purpose.

Regards

GT Premi

Actually, that's been around for some time. My Chrysler 300M Special (all 300Ms for that matter) had Easy Exit drivers seat. If the seat's not all the way back (which mine always was), when you pull the key out or release the seatbelt (whichever you did first), the seat would automatically move back (up to 2 inches.) When you locked it, it would return to the normal position. When you unlocked it (both with the fob programmed to the driver memory), it would slide back again until you put the key in or pulled the seatbelt, at which time it would slide forward to your normal driving position. I loved that feature, even though I didn't use it.

Cadillac has had soft-close doors (and trunk) since the '70s. Don't know if they still employ it. Concerning the "auto-retracting cupholders," the Lexus RX has a counterweight system (I think) that they use in the center console that you press a button and the doors flip open; press the other button and they flip closed, revealing/concealing the cupholders.

Besides, though, the 5 has exit assist. The steering wheel moves up (and away?) when you take the key out. And when you open the doors, the side bolsters release (on the multi-contour seats.)

GT Premi

Your kids have arms 2 feet long?? What do you have, monkeys? That, or you guys are a REALLY tall family.

Rudy

M-B has a feature that moves the seat back for "easy exit" but any time I've used it, I feel it makes it harder to get out of the car...

I remember Cadillac having the power pull-down on the trunk for many years but I don't recall them having any sort of soft closing doors back in the 70's... Are you sure they had that on the doors?

Westcoast M5

Sorry, I meant my trunk monkey has 2 ft arms. The kids are appropriately proportioned.

GT Premi

100%
My aunt and uncle had a '79 (maybe '80) Brougham. I remember my cousins and I used to open and close the doors just to watch them seal. That car was loaded to the nines. It had the auto-dimming headlights, cruise, etc. Even had the built-in air compressor for inflating the tires automatically (or at least the spare.) Didn't have leather, though.

cuto

man the ultimate reason why i want this is when i have friends who hop in my car and close the door after them. they think the door is for a bank vault where u have to slam the car door sooooooo hard just to get it closed. much like Westcoast M5's wifey hehe. i'm still upset NA owners got shafted.

westcoast550

Smarty Pants !! I was talking about car doors ............. not our X5 "Boots"

Rudy

I see -- my fairly extensive Cadillac experience ended with a 1978 Fleetwood Brougham (but dates back into the sixties...) Up until that time, we always had a loaded Fleetwood and I didn't recall the doors ever having a soft close feature which is why I wondered which model you saw it on.

After the '78 Fleetwood, we "graduated" to an 1980 450SEL and have been buying German cars ever since...

Just for fun, the oldest car I've ever seen with a soft close door feature was a 1966 Mercedes 600 limousine. (The latches, as well as most of the car's systems, were hydraulic.) I'm betting that the soft close technology appeared on that car as early as 1963 or 1964 when the car was first introduced.